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Olena is a gorgeous little girl in desperate need of a loving family! Olena has blonde hair and blue eyes, a beautiful, round tomato face and a smile that can light up a room. Regrettably, she also has a significant heart condition which has led to pulmonary hypertension. It is possible that she is not a candidate for surgery, but we wanted to share her here and give her the same chance as all of our children. Olena is quite low functioning at this time, from her environment, but also from her medical complications of fears of the staff to not let her do too much for fear of "losing her". But she is able to stand on her own now, and with help she will walk on her own some day! She is blessed to have been kept at the baby house for so long, but with her heart condition, she will not survive the institution. ;((

One family who visited with her in February of 2008 has this to say about her: " I would describe Olena as starved for human contact. She would become extremely excitable when we held or tried to play with her. This got us thrown out of the groupa’s room as much as anything. She loved to touch my face – especially my eyes. She was able to stand while holding onto the sides of her playpen. She had a few toys but showed no interest in them. The staff did change them – there were never the same toys in the playpen when we saw her. She watched the other children insistently. She is very low functioning – really much like a baby. She would do best in a home where she was the youngest or had many healthy, older (by several years) siblings. It would take time and patience to develop a bond with her - but she is very sweet. Medically, we observed that she was terribly congested. The orphanage staff said she really needed T&A surgery but her heart would not allow for this. She gasped for air, snorted very loudly trying to clear her throat, I think and made a sort of growling noise as she got excited. She had lower muscle tone but not so low as I would have expected. She could take a few steps with her caretaker holding her hands and pushing her feet a bit. She was very small boned – I noticed her hands were constantly moving. She sucked on her hands and left some teeth marks. The staff explained her heart condition to our interpreter who then called her personal doctor and asked her to explain exactly what they meant and what the prognosis was for Olena. Irina became very upset and explained that what they were saying was that Olena needed to have her heart repaired and that they had attempted to do this on three occasions but each time her pulmonary hypertention was too high to be able to do this. They also said that she needed to weigh at least 20kg before they could attempt it. ( I thought this meant that they had not even attempted to fix her heart until she was much older and that the damage had long since occurred) The staff said her “blood flows in reverse” – Irina had her doctor explain this several times before explaining this to us. We were told it meant that in an effort to sustain her, her body was forcing blood back through her lungs. "

Without a US evaluation, it is impossible to know for sure exactly what Olena's prognosis is. It is possible that she will only be with us for a short time. But God does not intend for her to die alone....He created Reece's Rainbow to serve as a voice for these children who are often forgotten. Olena counts too! I hope someone out there who is experienced with these challenges and has the local resources at home to at least try to help her will step forward and commit to being Olena's family, even if it only for a short while. Like Daria (Emma) before her, she will blossom like a flower....you have all the seen the transformations of each of our children once they are home! Only God knows if she is meant to be with us for a short time or a long time....but she deserves to know she is loved, to be held and cradled and rocked and know the love of a mother that she has never known.